Scary Monsters
by FreedomxSparks
Summary: There's a lot of scary monsters in this world and it's Gene Hunt's job to catch them. But there might be one that even the Gene Genie can't seem to get even if it means letting down Frankie, an orphaned teenage misfit. Rated T, Galex
1. Scary Monsters

**Ok, I PROMISED myself that I wouldn't write another fic until I'd finished A New Start but I have major writer's block and this was too tempting! And this gives me opportunity to totally geek out on David Bowie singles.**

**-Giggle-**

**This is set in-between series one and two because I miss Alex and her permed hair Dx Sorry for any spelling mistakes! **

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><p>A block of dingy council flats stood in front of Gene Hunt, like a cocky piss-head that was begging for a fight. It seemed to in blend well with the dull melancholy grey of sky, if it wasn't the endless scribbles of yellow-ish graffiti that adorned the front wall then he would probably have missed it at first. It was, in Gene's opinion, a shit hole. He heard the door slam and he turned to his DI, taking in the scowl on her face.<p>

"Told ya not to drink that last bottle o' wine, Bolls."

"I'm _not_ hung-over; I just don't see why we have to tag along to a routine drug s bust." Alex pulled her jacket around herself and shivered.

"'Cause yer yet to sample the unique paradise that is the Hammel Hill flats, DI Sulky-Knickers." He put his hands in his coat pockets and strode away from her. "Come on, crack-heads don't arrest themselves, yer know!"

Ray and the others were most likely to have already beaten up the meth snorting scum and sent them on their way to the nick but Gene wanted to inspect as much of the flat as possible. Scum does breed scum, after all. He predicted that, if they were lucky enough, they'd have several more dealers in the cells by dinner time. Hammel Hill was famous for that sort of thing.

The door to the lobby was almost off its hinges and the room had that special odour that reminded him of the colour brown. This wasn't like those clean, posh rooms you see on the movies, with a doorman and a desk clerk with a side parting and a clean smell. For a start, there was no desk, or any sort of place where a person who might know a thing or two about the bloody place would be. It was just a small room with a table, a chair, a lift and a door.

And many of those other lobbies didn't happen to have a teenage girl shuffling a pack of cards in the corner, either. The girl, fifteen years of age Gene guessed, was sat cross legged on the grimy floor boards. He _would_ of thought she was a boy due to her shortly cut blonde hair and her flat chest if it was not for the silver F she wore on a chain around her neck. And no boy would ever wear a necklace like that, no matter how poncey he may be.

See, even he could do this deduction shit.

"Yer mates went up to 409, sir." She said, not taking her eyes off the pack.

But before Gene could grunt out a 'Thanks' Alex stepped in with her usual brash nosiness.

"Excuse me, what's your name?"

"Frankie, miss."

"Why aren't you at school, Frankie?"

Frankie looked up, she wasn't dressed for school. Her legs were clothed in some scruffy jeans that had been shredded within an inch of their lives and she'd thrown an equally scruffy sleeveless denim jacket over a chequered t-shirt.

"Expelled, miss. Teachers don't like it when yer 'it 'em." She returned to her cards.

Alex turned to him and he shrugged what else could they do? They turned to go to the lift but not before they heard Frankie call over her shoulder, "Lift's broken, sir."

_Shit._

"Oh well, guv." He heard Alex sigh, "Looks like we'll have to do some exercise."

"Then you better get in front o' me, Bolly,'s a long way up without owt to feat me eyes on." She rolled her eyes at him and opened the battered glass door next to the lift which led them to an endless flight of stone steps.

Alex looked up at them and let out a whistle before turning to Gene, her eyes sparkling, "Race you?"

"Piss off, 'm not six anymore. Now mush, I weren't kiddin' about you going first."

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><p>By the time they had gotten to the fourth floor, Alex's legs were screaming in pain at her. She exited the stairs and passed through another battered door, closely followed by Gene, to the long corridor that was home to room 409. She spied Ray standing by an open door with Chris and they both waved her over.<p>

"One o' the plods saw the open door 'n' checked to see if there were owt wrong." Ray took a long drag of his cigarette, "Put me off spag bol for life, that has." Gene side stepped in front of her and opened the door wider; she took a step inside, hesitantly looking over at her DCI.

The room had been ransacked, papers had been thrown on the floor, sets of drawers had been tipped over and a cupboard door had been ripped away and had ended up in the smashed screen of the TV. In the middle of all this, was a dead body. Her face had been cut open several times and Alex could barely make out where her eyes were. She'd been stabbed in the neck twice and had been laid out on her back, staring up at the ceiling with eyes that were glazed over with blood.

Ray was right, it did resemble spaghetti bolognaise.

"Right!" Gene barked, "Ray, Chris! I want you to ask round, see if anyone 'ere saw owt, though I doubt them lot'd want ter talk ter a copper. And Lady B-" Gene turned to Alex. "Oi, Bolls!"

But Alex was too busy staring through the open door in the living room, the door that led to a small hallway, a hallway that led to a bedroom. From what she could see, the walls were painted a nicotine stained white and had been plastered with posters of music artists. In the corner of the room, directly opposite the door, was a small bed. A bed with thin blankets and several stuffed toys.

"We need to find this woman's child." She spoke up, interrupting Gene.

"_Shit. _We'll ask around and see where the kid goes to school.

Alex gave one slow nod, already feeling sorry for a child she had yet to turned on her heel and walked out, passing Ray who was comparing the victim's face to Lugi's pizza to Chris. She'd ask the people next door, despite a voice in her head telling her that if they _had_ heard something, they would have come forward earlier, or at least called the police.

"Oi!" She turned, looking towards the voice. It was Frankie, the teenager they had met earlier; she was at the end of the corridor and was making her way to Alex. "Oi! What you doin'?"

Alex gave her a polite smile, "Something else had cropped up, and we'll be staying a little-"

"Well I can see that, can't I? I just wanna know why you and your lot are sniffing about around my bloody 'ome!" She attempted to walk past her, but Alex put a hand on her arm.

"You live there?"

"Course I do."

"Why don't you come to the station with us and-" She saw Frankie's eyes widen and before she could stop her, she had shoved Alex, ran past her and through the open door.

"Frankie, wait!"

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><p>That woman had been easy to get past, just a quick jab to the ribs, really. And the other two plods, well, they weren't exactly alert, Frankie nearly managed to knock the one with the blond hair down completely, the other one, however, put up a fight. This one was taller and more heavily built, though Frankie was distracted by the hairy caterpillar which had taken over his top lip. That and the fact that he'd managed to grab her by the shoulders.<p>

"Where do you think your-" With her free arm, she curled her hand into a fist and swung a punch at him. It found its way to his nose and he realised her, reciting several swear words as he tried to recapture her again. But Frankie didn't stick around; she took a few more steps, right into the living room, right to-

Oh.

_Fucking_ oh.

It was her mam. She was on the floor.

She'd cut her face and her neck. She'd looked liked she'd been kicked about a bit. Her own daughter couldn't even make out her face. There was blood, well, _everywhere_. It was smeared on Mam's arms and...Fucking _everywhere._ It couldn't be Mam...Couldn't be. She'd seen her this morning! She was alive this morning, she _still_ was alive! She couldn't die! She was knocked out cold or something, right?

The floor was suddenly under her knees and her hands were resting on the carpet, her fingers were digging into the fibres. Oh bloody hell, she was crying. She had tears down her cheeks now; she was making a right racket. If her mam was still breathing, she would have given her a tissue, told her not to cry over something to trivial and taken her to the shops. She always did that when Frankie got angry or upset, they'd put on their coats and go down to the off-licence to get two cans of pop and a bag of sweets each. She was good at distracting her like that.

"Come on, luv, let's get you up." A distant voice said. It was warm, empathetic. The owner of the voice touched her shoulder, she spun around and lashed out, scraping her nails across the hand that didn't have time to retreat.

She didn't have time for fucking empathy, her mam was dead.

She lifted her head to the owner of the voice; her whole body was shaking, "My mam's got stabbed in the face and your asking me to get up?" She spat at him, it was a man, tall, blond, looking at her with shock in his blue eyes. "Well I've got news for you _Grandad! I AIN'T GOING NOWHERE!" _

The man moved quickly this time. He'd already had his long coat off, ready to give to her, so he threw it over her shoulders and lifted her up. She kicked and screamed while he carried her out of her home.

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><p>The kid, Frankie, was sitting in the back seat of the Quattro now; she had turned to the side and was hanging her legs out of the open door while the side of her head rested against chair. She'd wrapped Gene's coat around herself tightly and showed no signs of giving it back to him. He was leant against the car with Alex; they'd given up trying to talk to her right now. Her eyes stared a head, un-blinking and dull. Her eyes were the colour of her faded jeans and they showed no life in them.<p>

"Take me to the god damn station then." She finally spoke up, without looking at them, "I need a cup of tea."

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><p><em>'She had an horror of rooms she was tired you can't hide beat<em>  
><em>When I looked in her eyes they were blue but nobody home<br>__Well she could've been a killer if she didn't walk the way she do, and she do  
>She opened strange doors that we'd never close again'<em>


	2. Kingdom Come

**I forgot to mention that I'm intending to link a chapter with a Bowie song and name said chapter after said song, the key word here being 'intending' I may just pull it off...Somehow.**

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><p>"There you are," Shaz put a mug besides Frankie, "Tea, two sugars." She smiled kindly and walked back to her desk. Frankie was staring across CID, to the far side of the room; Alex doubted that she had even heard Shaz. She had pulled up a chair next to Alex's desk and was refusing to move or speak. She had given Gene's coat back, by give Alex meant that she'd shoved it into his hands without saying a word.<p>

She had been helping, though. She'd muttered out a couple of words once they'd gotten her into the station and had even gave a grumpy 'Serves you bloody right' to Ray and his bleeding nose. Asking her questions weren't easy, she wouldn't make eye contact and she and Gene had to strain to hear her.

The woman was Rose Ellis, a mother of one who had moved down south from Liverpool after she had gotten pregnant. Rose was an only child and her parents were dead, Frankie did not know who her father was. She had two jobs; she worked mornings at the local supermarket as a checkout girl and afternoons as a waitress.

Gene had cleared his throat and asked Frankie if she had anywhere to stay. She hadn't.

The neighbours insisted that they didn't hear anything, that they hadn't seen Rose since the night before when she had staggered into her flat, either really drunk or really tired. Frankie had yet to be asked about that, something told Alex that she would not take it well.

She'd also started to call Alex and Gene Guv and Ma'm, despite Alex's attempts to tell her that she could call her by her first name. She had been ignored.

She'd seen this sort of thing before. Frankie was trying to keep away from authority figures, as they reminded her of her mother. She seemed to be dealing with the grieving by severing herself from any ties to her old family life and keeping up the formalities seemed to be doing just that. If Alex could make her see that she could be regarded as a friend, as an equal and to call her by her name then she may have a chance to get closer to the girl.

Gene had told her that Frankie was just getting in line with everyone else, fitting in and that. Not that it seemed to be working; it was hard to overlook the teenage girl that had now taken up residence in the Criminal Investigation Department of Fenchurch East. And it was even harder to look over the photos forensics had taken at the crime scene when she was sitting right next to you, no matter how zoned out she was.

Alex put the photos down and looked besides her, Frankie had noticed she was being stared at and met her gaze for the first time.

"What?" She asked in a typically moody teenage manner.

"What did you eat for breakfast today?" Alex inquired, she doubted a girl like Frankie was the sort to sit down at a table and eat a proper meal.

"Two digestive biscuits 'n' the rest o' the milk from the bottle."

"That's no way to start the morning, hasn't anyone told you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?" She raised an eyebrow and got a sour faced scowl in return.

"No."

Alex stood up and got her jacket from the back of her chair, "Have you ever had pizza for breakfast?"

"No."

"Do you want to?"

Frankie got up steadily and the right corner of her mouth turned upwards in a smile, "Yeh." She looked over at Gene's office, "We need ter tell the guv, right?"

"Yes, I doubt we could sneak off without him knowing. He won't say no, anyway."

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><p>"You two aren't going anywhere." Gene slammed his glass of whiskey down on his desk and Alex jumped slightly at the noise it made.<p>

"Why not?" She exclaimed, "She needs to be taken out of this environment, Gene. If I sat her down, bought her a meal then maybe she'll open up and tell us about the last time she saw her mother."

"Bolls, she's a tough kid. Let 'er finish 'er tea, 'ave another cry 'n' then we'll ask 'er some more questions."

"I'll only be taking her across the road and while we're talking you and the rest of the team can go down to the morgue and-"

"No chance, you and Frankie are stayin' 'ere."

Alex snapped the collar of her leather jacket up and stormed out of Gene's office to where Frankie was waiting patiently by her desk.

"We not goin' then?" She asked, her blue eyes were soft with disappointment. Alex paused for a moment and took in the young girl's sad expression before shrugging.

"Whoever said we weren't going?" She nodded her head towards the door, "Come on." Frankie gave her a real grin this time and followed her out og CID, Alex paused as she opened the door and looked over at Gene, he was staring right at her and she swore she could see a whisp of a smile on his lips. She shook her head slightly and joined Frankie again, the guv didn't give her a smile very often and he _defiantly_ wouldn't give her one when she was halfway through disobeying him. Right?

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><p>Gene watched as his DI completely disobeyed him, he didn't realise that he was smiling until she turned to look at him. There she was, his Bolly-Kecks, waltzing out of CID to buy a kid a pizza. And she knew full bloody well that she'd get a bollocking when she got back. But did she care? Oh no. She was just bothered about Frankie. He wasn't surprised, hell, he expected her to ignore him. Maybe even hoped. That was just who she was.<p>

He watched as she moved her head, making her curls bounce around before following the kid out of the door. And then he poured himself another drink. If she came back with a statement from Frankie then he may just kiss her there and then.

And then receive another one of her Alex Drake signature punches.

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><p>Luigi's was near enough deserted, apart from the two females that sat in a corner, enjoying a plate of pizza and a bowl of pasta. Luigi himself was standing behind the bar, watching the customers with anxiety, he wanted to impress his new dinner.<p>

"So," Alex asked as she gathered some spaghetti, trying to push Ray's earlier comment out of her mind. "What music are you into?"

"I were raised on Bowie 'n' that. The Jam's pretty good too, I listen to a bit 'o' Motor'ead as well." Frankie mumbled with a mouthful of pizza.

"Yes, I saw a few Bowie posters in your room. Do you really have nowhere to stay?"

"No." Was all the girl said. A silence passed between them both until Frankie spoke up again. "Ma'm?"

"Hmm?"

"Will I have to do a proper interview, like?"

"Well, I was planning on doing it informally-"

"Like now?"

Alex put her fork down and gave her a empathetic look, "You can tell me anything you want, whenever you want. Do you understand, Frankie?"

"Right then." She watched as Frankie rifled around in the denim jacket she had hung on the back of her chair, before eventually pulling out a biro. "Never know when yer might need one." She said with a grim smile, passing the pen to Alex who took it hesitantly.

"What am I-"

"Shut up and let me talk, jot it down on a napkin or somink. Mam came 'ome late last night, she's been doin' that alot, my guess is she got another job 'n' didn't wanna tell me. She's like that, she keeps stuff away from me."

"You don't have to-"

"Ma'm, be quiet. I'd stayed up so I could see 'er to bed, sometimes she's so tired she don't know where to go. I let 'er sleep in my bed 'n' I took the sofa."

She paused and observed Alex as she scribbled it down on the paper napkin in front of her.

"She woke up in the morning earlier than me 'n' she looked proper pale so I told 'er that she should pull a sickie but she wouldn't 'ave none of it, said she need ter get out o' the flat. So I says that-" Her voice broke unexpectedly and Alex looked up, "-So I says that if she drops dead in middle o' Asda then she can't bloody well blame me." She moved her hand to touch Frankie's forearm, the girl looked up and swiped her eyes with the back of her free hand. "And she told me that she only works so bloody much 'cos o' me."

"Oh Frankie..." Was all Alex could muster, because she too was in danger of crying.

"D'ya reckon that-that if I'd o' stayed upstairs and 'ad seen 'er off to work that-"

_"No." _Alex cut her off firmly. "It wasn't your fault." Frankie sat back and snatched her arm away, suddenly becoming closed off again.

"'Ow the blood 'ell do you know?"

"Because I blamed myself for my parents' death when I was a young girl and it tore me up inside. In fact," She mused. "I probably still blame myself now."

"Could you o' stopped it?"

"Yes. I believe that I could of."

Frankie stared down at her lap and chewed her lip, "Can we go back to the station?" She said without looking up, "I left me tea there."

Alex smiled warmly, "Yes, we can go back. Listen, sweetheart about what happened-"

"Can we leave it Ma'm? I just wanna get away from it a bit, y'know?"

"Yes, I know."

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><p><em>I just need one day <em>  
><em>somewhere far away<em>  
><em>Lord I just need one day<em> 


	3. Watch That Man

**Ok, several things I want to talk about!**

**1) CHRIS ON DOCTOR WHO? JHDGBVJDGRKADJGBkjgfjdgjfh! I was like 'Chris Skelton get your arse back to 1981 this very second before I slap you! :C'**

**2) One of the characters in a book I'm reading was described as 'like Gene Hunt-but louder.' I would like to tell the author that this is physically impossible for any mere mortal.**

**3) I haven't updated in a while, sorry!**

**4) HOLY CRAP! SHAZ IS ON T.V! NO, DAD GO BACK A FEW CHANNELS! I -KNOW- I'M ON THE LAPTOP BUT I WANNA WATCH TV TOO! HER HAIR HAS GROWN! SHE HAS GLASSES! WHY ARE YOU NOT ON DOCTOR WHO WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND, WOMAN?**

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><p>They had washed her body, her skin was now a polar white, she had Frankie's eyes. Her blonde hair must have been given to her by her dad, Rose had auburn locks. They'd taken off her jeans and removed her blue cotton shirt; the sheet covered her modesty now.<p>

"The victim bled to death due to the multiple stab wounds," The coroner droned on, much to Gene's displeasure. "The bruising on the back of her head suggests that she was pushed backwards. Mr Hunt, did the victim own a cat?"

"Not that I know." He grunted.

"I found several stray hairs on her collar that seem to be from a feline."

"The neighbour we talked to 'ad cats, Guv," Chris piped up. "Should we pull 'im in?"

"Yeah." He replied, "When Lady B decides to grace us with her presence again." He nodded to the coroner and they left. It had been awkward without Alex there to baffle him with the science-y nonsense.

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><p>Frankie sat at Alex's desk again, playing about with a Rubik's Cube that she had found in Skelton's desk drawer; Alex had advised her to start at the corners. She had a cluster of blue's that had somehow taken over the orange corner and a solitary red square was floating in a sea of yellows. She gave in and slammed it on the desk, perfectly in time with Gene bursting back into CID.<p>

"Drake, you know the drill." Was all he said as he pointed to his office, Alex walked around Frankie's chair and gave her shoulder a squeeze before she entered the lion's den. Frankie's eyes were locked on the windows, trying to see past the blinds. She knew she hadn't a hope of knowing what he was saying to her, she wasn't bloody Superman for god's sake, but she could still try, right? Time seemed to tick by until Alex finally came out, a suppressed smile on her face that only Frankie seemed to read. It said _'we got away with it' _

She grinned enough for both of them.

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><p>Alex had returned to her desk as soon as they got back to the station, forms to fill out and what not. Frankie sat beside her again; she'd swiped a Rubik's Cube from somewhere and was now glaring intently at it.<p>

"You might want to start at the corners first." She suggested, Frankie gave her a nod and proceeded to twist it furiously. After a while of hopeless puzzling she brought it crashing down on the desk, just as Gene exploded through the doors. Alex gave an inaudible sigh; she knew what was going to happen next.

"Drake, you know the drill." His finger jabbed at the door of his office, she _did_ know the drill. She got up and walked around and gave Frankie a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder before following Gene, this would be fun. She closed the door behind her and folded her arms. Gene poured himself some whiskey and slumped into his chair, an expectant look on his face.

"Go ahead." She said with an unenthusiastic wave of her hand.

"What did you find out?" He said, his jaw was clenched, he was finding it hard to keep calm. It was quite endearing...In a Gene sort of way.

"Rose has been coming home very late recently, she was so tired last night that she didn't know where she was. She was sick in the morning but insisted that she had to get out of the flat, Guv if that's not suspicious then I don't know what is." She unfolded her arms, the lack of shouting was creeping her out.

"They found some cat hairs on her collar, 'pparently one of the neighbours owns a cat. It's a long shot but it's the only lead we got." He put down his glass and rubbed his forehead, "This is messed up, Bols. That poor blighter 'as lost all she 'ad."

Alex moved to her usual perch on his desk and leaned against the computer, "It's a sick world." Gene gave her another glass and she drank it reluctantly.

"Damn right." He sighed wearily, her heart softened.

"Come on," She put the glass down. "Let's go question this neighbour then." She received a Frankie-style nod and he stood up along with her. She opened the door again and ignored the curious glances she got from her colleges, she guessed that they weren't used to the quiet conversation any more than she was. A small smile threatened to cover her face, maybe this was the start of a more peaceful CID? She cast her eyes over to Frankie, she was sitting at the edge of her seat, she was smirking back at her.

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><p><em>"Peaceful CID, my arse..." <em>Alex muttered under her breath as she tapped her foot impatiently on the concrete floor.

"It was opposite, Guv!"

"Piss off, Chris! It was next door but one!"

Chris and Ray's argument was growing more heated by the moment; Gene's response to this was to grab both of them by the scruff of their necks and to slam their foreheads together. After that they decided that he probably lived opposite. 'He' was Lucas Green, the owner of three cats and (according to Ray) a 'right creepy bastard if you ask me.'

Eventually, they managed to find Lucas' flat, most of the neighbours were still poking their heads through their doors, trying to catch a glimpse of the crime scene. Lucas was one of them. He was leant against his door, cigarette in hand. He had shaggy brown hair that looked like it hadn't been combed in a week and a pale complexion that screamed 'drug abuser'

Chris nodded over at him, "That's 'im, Ma'm."

"Lucas Green?" Gene called out before Alex could say anything.

Lucas looked up; his dark eyes hovered over each of them for a spine-tingling moment. "Yes?"

"We'd like to 'ave a talk with you."

"Again?"

_"Yes."_

"Ok." He nodded towards his door as he opened it, allowing them inside.

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><p><em>Watch that man! Oh honey, watch that man<em>  
><em>He talks like a jerk but he could eat you with a fork and spoon.<br>__Watch that man! Oh honey, watch that man_  
><em>He walks like a jerk<em>  
><em>But he's only taking care of the room<em>


End file.
